Two Minute Stat Shot : High BABIPwHR

Another new feature at Mop Up Duty. Time is tight, so we’re going to give you a two minute stat shot. In these two minutes, we hope to show you some of the more interesting stats of current & past baseball lore. Everything will be kept simple, so these “shots” are useful for the everyday fan and even fantasy players. Let’s not waste anymore time.

Hits / (At Bats – Strikeouts)= Batting Average for Balls in Play

Batting average for balls in play is Hits divided by At-Bats minus strikeouts. Basically, ever plate appearance that doesn’t end in a strikeout or a walk is a ball hit into play, and is used in the BABIP stat. A regular BABIP takes out home runs, so this stat is more of a true hit-rate BABIP than the regular BABIP, which just accounts for balls in the actual field of play.Today we’re looking at big increases in 2006 vs a players three year average. Bolded is a players 2006 season, above that is their previous efforts.

Now, a high change isn’t an indictment of coming failure. Some players on the list are younger (Cano, Teahen, Morneau), and some are older (Chipper, Tejada, Jeter) and some came out of nowhere (Reed Johnson, Freddy Sanchez, Mark DeRosa). I’ll leave it up to you to decide who the real deal is, and who got lucky in 2006.